I’ve got to admit — sometimes technology is infuriating. My grade 5-8 language arts students have been working on the first of their monthly book review podcasts for the last couple weeks and we’ve really been blocked at every turn. First, the website we were using for file conversion was blocked by our board. Then, Audacity wouldn’t open. Then, Audacity wouldn’t allow them to edit their mp3 files. Then, Audacity would allow them to edit, but wouldn’t allow them to save their work. It was a never ending list of technological glitches and I was starting to lose hope.
Then, the weekend happened. I stepped back. I relaxed. I played with my amazingly sweet 15 month old. And I had an epiphony. “Try something else” I told myself. So, I did. I started scouring the internet for information on podcasting, on voice recording, on programs and apps, and anything else that could be helpful. Slowly, a new plan started to form in my brain and today I put that plan into action. The results were immediate!
So let’s rewind a little bit. Let me tell you a little bit about this project I’ve taken on.
I am a sucker for technology. I’m not really a techy, but I really believe that technology in MANY forms have a very important place in the classroom. I’ve seen first hand how engaging it can be, and I’ve seen how the quality of work rises when the kids buy into it. So, I decided that I would try out podcasting this year. I thought and thought about how I’d use podcasts, and I came up with the idea for monthly book reviews. I didn’t like the idea of the podcasts being a one-off assignment, and I really liked the fact that in June the students would be able to look back over the course of the year and have a record of their work. Thus, the monthly podcasts were born.
I told the kids about the podcasts during the first week. They seemed pretty jazzed. Over the month of September we talked about things like oral fluency, writing for purpose and audience, and making connections. About half way through October, I gave the students my podcast template for their book review podcasts to help them plan. It is essentially a large scale fill-in-the-blanks worksheet and it worked wonders. Once the students had planned and written their first podcast they were required to practice reading it out loud 3 times…once to themselves, once to another student, and once to a second student or a teacher/EA. After they’d practiced reading their work aloud, they were permitted to start recording.
The recording process is where we started to have problems. In order to keep this assignment as engaging as possible, I’ve been allowing students to use their own devices (iPods, etc.) to record their work (using the Voice Memo app). About half the class has taken advantage of this. The recording itself was pretty simple, but getting the recording to a computer was difficult due to wifi issues. Plus, once it was on the computers, the files had to be converted from m4a files to mp3s. We ended up using a free online file converter which was very quick, but it took a while to figure out the easiest solution. Fortunately, I have an awesome administrator who is extremely supportive of my efforts to make use of technology, so we’ve been able to score ourselves a class iPod (and word on the street is that another 8 are on their way). So, with such an abundance of apple technology in my classroom already, I thought I should look into iOptions for this assignment. That’s when I discovered (or, re-discovered) GarageBand. I won’t go into too many details other than to say that it’s already solved a variety of our problems, and the kids are totally into it. They can record, edit, and insert background tracks of drums or guitar all in one place! Bing, bang, boom! I downloaded it into my iPhone, iPad, and iPod and did a brief demo with my kids this morning over the data projector. A few of them already had the app and most of them went home planning to beg their parents to download it. Score!
Meanwhile, students who don’t have their own devices were given a microphone and a school laptop to record directly into Audacity. Luckily, it wasn’t glitchy for these students and we were able to have 95% success with it.
Now, after about a week of wading through a variety of technologies, various hitches and glitches, and more than a few frustrated students, we’ve finally had success. Nearly every student has recorded and posted their first podcasts. Some are excellent, and some leave quite a bit to be desired. But they’re done and online! It took me a little while to figure out what platform to use to host our podcasts and after some discussion with the people over at K-12 Handhelds, I settled on Podomatic.
I knew the first month would be the hardest since it’s a brand new project. I won’t say that it wasn’t maddening at times (it absolutely WAS), but I will say that the final products absolutely justified the twists, turns, and about-faces throughout the process. I definitely think that next month will be much smoother, and I really can’t wait to see how they improve over the course of the year!
Check out this fantastic example!
Update: Since completing our first podcasts, I’ve also had the kids complete podcast reflection sheets to be included in their portfolios. These will be completed after every podcast and hopefully we will have a nice collection of learning reflections by the end of the year!
Crosbie's Classroom Creations 